Author note: Another long chapter for you!

Third year is coming to a close soon and honestly I never thought that I would get this far. I started writing this story purely to get the idea out of my head so the fact that people are reading and enjoying it makes me so happy.

The story still has a long way to go so I hope you will stick with it.

As always- let me know what you think or ask any questions - your comments make me so happy.

Hope you are all staying safe and well xxx

They fell into a routine from then on, using the necklaces to say goodnight. Neville always went first, nothing that they had decided, it just happened. Three pulses from him, three from her.

Sometimes when either of them woke up from a nightmare they would pass a buzz back and forth until they both fell back to sleep. Ebony loved it, a constant comfort that she had never had before. She never took it off, the feeling of it tucked inside her shirt became so familiar that she felt somewhat naked without it.

She was also terrified that if she took it off she would lose it, something which Neville was yet to do which was surprising as he misplaced at least one of his possessions every day.

...

Ebony couldn't sleep. That wasn't anything unusual but she had grown tired of tossing and turning, she couldn't get her mind to shut off and the warmer weather was making the dorm too stuffy to get comfortable. She had tried to see if Neville was awake by pressing her necklace but her friend was seemingly out cold. They both struggled to get to sleep sometimes but once Neville was out he could sleep through anything. She gave up trying and decided to get out of bed.

Ebony had ventured down to the common room and was surprised to see a red-haired girl lying on the floor in front of the fire. It was nearly three o clock in the morning and she hadn't expected anyone else to be awake. The girl looked over as Ebony came in.

"Hi," she said, smiling.

"Er.. hi," Ebony said, "Sorry I didn't think anyone would be here at this time."

"It's alright," the girl waved her over, "come join me."

Ebony hesitated but walked over and lay down next to her. The girl rolled onto her side and Ebony was finally able to see her face properly. "Ginny isn't it?" She asked.

"That's me," Ginny said, "though I think the hair was a dead give away." Ebony smiled.

"And you're Ebony, right? Neville's friend?"

"Yep."

"So, Ebony," Ginny said, leaning on her elbows, "What brings you down here at this time?"

"I couldn't sleep," she admitted. Ginny nodded in agreement.

"Me neither," she said, "bad dreams?" Ebony nodded and Ginny flopped down onto her back and sighed.

It was a strange feeling, Ebony had never really spoken to Ginny yet, at that moment, she felt completely comfortable around her. It was the kind of feeling that could only be found in the small hours of the morning when the world was at peace.

"You do this a lot?" Ebony asked, finally breaking the still silence between them.

"Yeah," she replied, "it's a good place to think."

"I suppose it is."

"What are you thinking about?"

"Hmm?"

"Come on, I can practically see the cogs turning in your head."

"I'm just thinking about why anyone would like me." Ebony wasn't quite sure what it was about lying on the floor with Ginny in the small hours of the morning that made her say this out loud. It was as though the world had stopped for a moment and nothing she could say would even be remembered in a few hours.

"What makes you think that?"

"My parents aren't exactly the nicest people, most people see my last name and think Death Eater. They presume that I'm a horrible person too."

"I don't"

"And why is that?"

"Just because you've got bits of bad stuff in you doesn't mean you're evil." She said rolling over onto her side. "I got mixed up with some dark magic last year but it doesn't make me a bad person."

"I'd never thought about it like that," Ebony replied, "Thanks, Ginny."

"Besides, Neville is literally one of the nicest people and he keeps you around so you can't be that bad."

"I guess." She said, smiling.

She felt strangely comforted by Ginny's words.

They both just lay there staring at the ceiling, each finding comfort in the steady breathing of the girl beside her.

She had always wondered why Neville wanted to be friends with her in the first place. He was the one person who had every right to hate her with every fibre of his being. But he didn't. Instead, he was nothing but kind and caring towards her.

Ebony was starting to realise that she had never cared about anyone so much in her life. Draco had been her best friend for the first part of her life but it wasn't the same. He was family, there because he had to be, not out of choice.

Neville, on the other hand, chose her. He had somehow slipped into her life and refused to leave and Ebony couldn't think how she would've made it this far without him there to make her laugh, smile and just generally be clumsy around her.

She closed her eyes and thought back to the first time they'd met. It was brief, on the morning of their first proper day at Hogwarts and Ebony had received a Howler about her sorting.

Ebony tucked herself into an alcove in the corridor off the Great Hall, she buried her face in her hands, her cheeks still burning. She had just been yelled at by her parents in front of everyone. What a great way to start the year.

She hadn't meant to do it. She'd begged the sorting hat to put her into Slytherin but it wouldn't listen, insisting that it was not where she belonged.

She wasn't quite sure how to feel about that.

Ebony heard movement next to her and looked up to see a chubby, brown-haired boy looking at her, shuffling his feet.

"That was rough."

She shrugged. She didn't know who he was but she was really not in the mood to talk to anyone right now.

"I came to give you this," he thrust a piece of paper in her direction which turned out to be her timetable. "You left as Professor McGonagall was handing them out."

"Thanks." It was quiet and she wasn't sure if he heard it. She took the paper and stared at it intensely, hoping he would get the hint and leave as she was not sure of what else to say to the boy.

She only looked up when she heard footsteps retreating. She watched him wander back into the hall.

That's when she noticed 3 slices of toast on a napkin next to her on the floor and the corners of her mouth twitched into a smile.

Ebony didn't feel that she had ever done anything to deserve his friendship but she was more than grateful for it.

...

"I mean it's incredible," Neville said whilst shovelling pasta into his mouth, "a plant that changes colour depending on the weather."

"That is pretty cool." Ebony was only really half listening to him, more focused on subtlety slipping bread rolls into her pocket. She had managed to send food down to Sirius once before and figured she should try again. Even though he could turn into a dog, she thought that he probably didn't enjoy eating out of bins.

She listened to Neville's rambling until they were finished eating and then the two of them left the Great hall. They headed down the corridor and Neville stopped near the door to the grounds.

"I'll see you after Herbology club then?" Neville said.

"Yeah."

"Are you sure you don't want to join?"

"I don't exactly have a green thumb," Ebony said, smiling, "and we both know that the only reason I even pass Herbology is because you help me."

"Give yourself some credit."

"Then admit that you're actually good at DADA." Neville pretended to scowl at her.

"I'll see you later."

She watched him walk out of the gate and then hurried in the opposite direction towards the owlry.

...

Ebony looked around to check that she was alone and then emptied the contents of her pocket, 6 bread rolls and 2 muffins. She laid them out on a handkerchief and then twisted the corners together and tied them up with string. She attached it to the tawny owl that was sat waiting.

"Deliver this to the caves just outside Hogsmeade okay?" The owl hooted and took off.

Ebony watched it soar away from the castle and disappear behind the trees.

She thought about how lonely it must be for Sirius, living in a cave, unable to talk to anyone because the Wizarding world thinks you're a murderer. In all honesty, Ebony still wasn't quite sure about the whole situation but her gut told her to trust him. She only hoped that at some point he would be able to explain what the hell was going on. There wasn't another Hogsmeade weekend for a while and even then, Ebony felt guilty at the thought of leaving Neville alone.

She exhaled deeply, looking at where the sun was setting behind the trees.

It had been a long year.

...

They were eating breakfast when the jet black owl landed in front of Ebony, it's amber eyes glaring at her.

"Your parents wrote to you?"

Ebony obviously heard the disbelief in his voice " Trust me, I'm just as surprised as you are." She took the letter from the owl's beak, which nipped her finger as soon as she did. Ebony stuck her finger in her mouth as it started to bleed. "What are you waiting for?" She asked when the owl didn't fly off. She batted it with the envelope, "Shoo."

It hooted at her and flew off but not before it did a large poo in her bowl of cereal. Ebony wrinkled her nose and shoved the bowl away. "I swear that bird hates me as much as they do."

"That is not a bird," he said, "that is a literal demon." Neville had never seen such an angry owl in his life.

He watched as she opened the letter and couldn't help but notice the slight tremor in her hands as she tore the envelope. He watched her eyes dart across the page, trying to read her expression.

"What is it?"

"Nothing," she said stuffing the letter into her pocket. "They want me to go home over Easter for some family thing. Lucky me."

"You don't have to go."

"Don't I?"

"You could write and say you are busy."

Ebony snorted. " I can already see how well that would go."

"What if you asked McGonagall?"

"What am I supposed to say?" Ebony said, "Professor would you mind telling my parents that I hate them and don't want to go home."

Neville thought for a moment. "You could just spill some rubbish about how you want to study for your tests or something. I mean it wouldn't be a total lie - we are already getting mountains of homework."

The lead up to end of year exams always sucked, teachers piling on homework weeks before. Third-year was especially bad as they all had new subjects to study for. It was definitely the worst part of the year.

"Good point." Ebony replied, reaching for some toast, "I'll go talking to her after Charms this afternoon."

...

It wasn't until she was stood outside McGonagall's office that Ebony thought that maybe she should just suck it up and go home. Apparently some relative or other was getting married and it was important that she attended. Ebony had been to more weddings in her life then she could count on her fingers and really didn't see what was so special about this one. It probably wouldn't even be that bad. But she couldn't lie to herself, the thought of it made her stomach twist in knots.

No, this was worth a go.

Ebony took a deep breath and then knocked on the door.

"Come in!" Professor McGonagall called. She hesitantly pushed the door open.

McGonagall looked over the top of her glasses at her and then put down the paper she was looking at. "Ebony," she said, sounding surprised, "what can I do for you?"

"Erm...I was wondering if I could ask you something." Ebony could feel her face flushing.

"Very well," Professor McGonagall said, clasping her hands together. "Go on,"

"My parents want me to go home over Easter." She said, hovering awkwardly at the edge of McGonagall's desk. She wasn't sure whether to sit down or not and it felt too late now to do so.

"Right."

"But I feel that my time would be better spent here, focusing on my end of year exams."

"I see."

"So," Ebony was twisting the ends of her sleeves together. "I was wondering if you could maybe... if it's not too much trouble Professor... write to them and say just that."

McGonagall raised her eyebrows slightly. "Could you not write them yourself?"

"They most likely wouldn't listen to me. I thought that if you wrote to them then they would."

McGonagall looked at her for a minute. Ebony gave an uneasy smile, unsure of what else to do.

"Ebony," her voice became softer, "you know could tell me if this was about more than just wanting study for tests?"

"Yes," she said, not meeting McGonagall's eye. Why did teachers always feel the need to say things like that?

"And is it?"

Ebony hesitated. "No, I just want to do well this year." It wasn't a complete lie, she did want to do well and knew for a fact that she would get very little studying done if she went home.

"Very well." Ebony couldn't help but notice that Professor McGonagall looked almost disappointed at her response. "I will contact your parents and suggest that you would be better off spending your Easter here."

"Thank you, Professor," Ebony said, possibly smiling a little too much as she turned and left the office, feeling as though a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

...

Remus looked up as Minerva let herself into his office.

"I really don't know who that girl thinks she's fooling." She muttered as she sat opposite him.

"Good evening to you too Minnie." He chuckled.

"You boys and your nicknames." She said rolling her eyes.

"Tea?"

"Only if you're making it." He got up to heat up the kettle.

"Who are you muttering about today?" He said over his shoulder as he poured the water into two mugs. He gave them a stir and then turned back to his desk, handing one over to Minerva.

"Ebony," she said as slid her glasses down and rubbed her nose. Remus' grin faltered slightly as he sat down.

"What's happened now?"

"She came to my office to ask if I could inform her parents that I thought she would better off staying here over Easter so that she could study." Minerva sipped her tea. "She seemed to think that they wouldn't listen to her."

"And what did you say?"

"I said I'd do it of course, who do you take me for." She said, batting Remus' arm. "I'd like to keep her out of that house as much as possible, especially after whatever happened over Christmas break."

"Did we ever get to the bottom of that?"

McGonagall smiled sadly and looked at Remus over the top of her glasses, a look that he became far too familiar with in school. "What do you think?" Remus shrugged. " Trying to get information out of her is like trying to get water out of a rock."

"You're not wrong there."

She sighed, setting her mug down on the desk. "From Poppy's examination, she was malnourished, hadn't eaten in days by the look of things. She had a nasty black eye and though Poppy didn't get a chance to look, Ebony was clearly suffering from some sort of backache."

"I don't even want to imagine what could've caused that."

"Knowing what both of those people are capable of, it doesn't bear thinking about."

Remus set his own mug down, wrapping his hands around the warmth. He almost shuddered at the thought of what could've happened to her. He had duelled both the Lestranges in the war and neither of them were known to show any kind of mercy.

"What are we going to do about her?" He said, "The summer holidays will come soon enough and then she'll be on her own. If all that happened in two weeks god knows what they'll do over eight."

Minerva took her glasses off and sighed. "I'm not usually one to sit back and do nothing," she said, her eyes almost glistening, "But this is an incredibly delicate matter until Ebony comes to us herself or we gain some concrete evidence of the situation there is nothing we can do."

"Fuck," Remus said rubbing his face and then looked at Minerva with

an almost panicked look in his eyes as he registered the word that had come out of his mouth. Minerva just grinned at him.

"You're not a child anymore Remus," she said, "I'm not going to tell you off."

"Old habits die hard I guess."

"Besides that's hardly the worst I've heard you say." She smirked, "you could blame the other boys all you wanted but I always knew it was you who swore like a sailor."

All Remus could do was smile guiltily and drink his tea.

...

Ebony had a spring in her step as she made her way back to Gryffindor tower. She had no idea how her parents would respond but considering that threat that they had made at the start of the year she couldn't see them disagreeing.

Neville wasn't in the common room when she arrived. She found Seamus hanging upside down on an armchair flicking dung bombs at the wall. She arched her eyebrow but didn't comment on his actions. "Hey Seamus, you seen Neville?"

"Yeah, he's upstairs in the dorm." He replied, squinting as he aimed his next bomb at the wall.

"Thanks, " she said, watching as the dung bomb splattered against the wall, "I'll erm..leave you to it."

...

Neville was lying on his bed muttering away to Trevor, who was sat on his chest. He didn't notice Ebony come in.

"I mean it's really annoying." Trevor croaked in response. Ebony just smiled and leant against the doorframe. "I know, it's so unfair."

"Am I interrupting something?"

Neville sat up suddenly, looking flushed. Trevor jumped off his chest and gave a disgruntled croak before hiding under the bed.

"Hi Ebony, I was...em...I was just..."

"Talking to Trevor?" She said as she walked over and flopped onto the bed next to him.

"Erm...no?"

"Must've been my imagination then."

"How'd it go?" He said, clearly keen to steer the conversation in a different direction.

"She said she'd do it."

"That's good."

"Yep, just to wait now and see what happens, worst comes to worst, I have to go home."

"I don't want you to go back there."

"Like I said we'll see what they say-"

"No, I don't want you to ever have to go back there." Ebony just looked at him and sighed.

"It's not that bad."

"We clearly have different definitions of 'bad'."

"What do you suggest I do? Runaway?" At Neville's expression, she just sighed. "I was joking. Even if I did, it's not like I have anywhere else to go."

"You could come and stay with me."

She smiled sadly at him. "While I appreciate the offer, we both know that your grandmother would not be a fan of that."

Neville sighed and looked at his lap. Ebony put her arm around his shoulders. "Hey," he looked up, "thank you though." She watched as his eyes were welling up with tears.

"It's not fair that you have to live there." He moaned, "it's not fair you have to live with horrible people and I-" his voice cracked, "- hate the thought of them hurting you." He mumbled as a couple of stray tears rolled down his face.

"Fucksake Neville, you know I'm not good when you cry," she said, wiping his cheek with her sleeve. He just sniffled. She gave him a reassuring smile, "Don't worry about me. Whatever they do, I can take it."

"You shouldn't have to."

"But I do." She playfully batted at his arm. "Now come on, if anyone should be crying it should be me."

"You almost never do," He sniffed, " so I do it for you." He leant his head back against her arm. They lay there, Ebony relaxing under the weight of his body on her side.

"Why don't you cry?"

The question was unusually blunt and she frowned, "I do cry."

"Not really, not in front of me anyway. You always look like you're trying really hard not to."

Ebony rolled her eyes.

"You would do so much better in classes if you put in half as much effort to your work as you do analysing my behaviour."

"Shut up." He said, "I'm being serious."

"I don't like crying in front of people, what's wrong with that?"

"Is it that you don't like doing it or that you are scared to?."

Ebony sat up and pulled away from him, "what do you mean by that?"

"I think it's pretty obvious that they wouldn't be the type of people to comfort you when you are upset."

Lestranges don't cry.

Don't be so pathetic.

Fucking pull yourself together.

Don't be such a baby.

Quit blubbering.

Ebony just looked away from him and chewed on the knuckle of her thumb. She didn't know what to say.

"What I'm trying to say is that you don't have to hide your emotions from me, " he said and she turned back to look at him, "it's what I'm here for." He reached over and took her hand. "Besides I think it's only fair considering that I cry in front of you at least once a day."

Ebony snorted and rolled her eyes, "It's not my fault that you are overly emotional."

"Am not."

"Yesterday you cried because that weird plant in the greenhouse you like, flowered."

"It's really rare for them to do that!" He insisted.

"Okay buddy, okay." She said, smiling and shaking her head.